A Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) is a smart card used in mobile terminals (e.g., wireless handsets) in global system for mobile (GSM) and universal mobile telephone service (UMTS) networks. The UICC includes a virtual (e.g., software based) subscriber identity module (SIM). The UICC may include information associated with the user, such as a unique subscriber identifier, a profile of services to which the subscriber has subscribed, etc.
A user may acquire a mobile terminal for use with a first mobile network operator (MNO) in a first location. There may be several situations in which the first MNO is not able to control what is happening with the mobile terminal. For example, the user may move to a second location and continue to use the mobile terminal with a second MNO that has a contract to provide service to users associated with first MNO. If the second MNO's contract with the first MNO is terminated (e.g., the second MNO is purchased by a rival MNO, etc.), the mobile terminal may become orphaned.
As another example, the second MNO may not be able to provide at least some of the services to which the user has subscribed. For example, the subscriber profile in the UICC may have become corrupted or may be out of sync with a corresponding subscriber profile stored at the second MNO's servers.
As yet another example, the subscriber profile on the UICC may cause connectivity issues, such as the second MNO blocking data traffic, the second MNO not supporting roaming for the user's mobile terminal, the second MNO not supporting short message service (SMS) or other types of traffic, etc.
These examples illustrate situations in which the user does not receive the services to which the user has subscribed. Encountering such situations may cause subscriber dissatisfaction and result in the loss of subscribers.